Le Déchargement de la péniche c. 1925 - 1930

Maximilien Luce loaded this scene onto canvas with oil paint, somewhere along the line. Look at these brushy, desaturated tones that somehow capture the grit and slog of labour. I can see him working, trying to find a way into this world. A world where figures toil away amidst an industrial landscape, skies of grey, a peach sunset—or is that smoke? I can feel Luce grappling with the paint, pushing and pulling, searching for a way to convey the weight of the labour, the heat, the sheer physical strain. I bet he built up layer upon layer, letting the colours mix and mingle, until the scene felt just right. The man carrying the sack, bent almost double: Luce's brushwork embodies the human spirit, not just surviving, but pushing on. There's something about the way the paint is applied, thick in some places, thin in others, that gives the whole scene a kind of restless energy. Like Luce, his contemporary Van Gogh felt this too, and let his own brush strokes do all the talking. They were both influenced by impressionism, but they both went beyond it. Painting is like that. It is an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time.